Feedback: Constructive comments and criticism welcomed at sbarret_fic@yahoo.com,
and many thanks for reading.

Academy's Finest

By Sandra Barret

Part 2

"Jordan?"

"Yeah?"

"This isn't going to be fun, is it?"

"Hazings seldom are, Dray."

Dray stood in the darkened air lock with her bunkmate and tried to control
her fidgeting hands. The engines of the carrier class frigate rumbled beneath
her boots as they waited for the rest of squadron 28. Being alone, in the dark,
with the woman of her dreams, it all should have been better than this. But a
hazing waited and not only did she have to pass muster, she had to keep her cool
in front of Jordan. Twice the pressure meant less than half the fun. Would they
show up already?

As if on cue, the amber lights came on. Dray scanned the tight confines of
the air lock. A sprinkle of stars disappeared from the airlock view port, replaced
with a reflection of Dray and Jordan in their cadet uniforms. To their left, hung
two space suits, complete with air tanks and tether ropes. This didn't look good.

Dray remembered the unbelievable view of asteroids and matter clouds as their
frigate steered through the belt that morning. She and Jordan had nothing to do
with but watch while their mentors acted as copilots for the frigate, under Ngollo's
command. The trip would be worth any hazing, she thought as she eyed up the space
suits again.

Dray watched Jordan's face pale and hoped her own expression didn't reflect
her inner fears quite so apparently. She unhooked the first suit and passed it
to Jordan. "We'll be fine," she said, stifling her own fears to bolster her friend.

"Have you spacewalked before?" asked Jordan as she struggled into the bulky
suit.

"Nope," said Dray, pushing her head through the suit top. "How hard can it
be?"

Jordan snapped on her gloves. "So, nothing scares you, eh?"

"I wouldn't say that." Dray took the helmet from Jordan's struggling gloved
hands. She put the helmet over Jordan's head, trying not to let her hands tremble
as she pushed Jordan's soft hair off her face and slid the helmet into the locked
position.

"You scare me," Dray mumbled once her own helmet was sealed.

A gloved hand slid under her arm, turning her. Jordan's resonant voice clicked
in over the helmet-com. "I scare you?"

The comlink was open? Dray felt her cheeks flush as she tried to think of a
good excuse for her ill-timed confession. She saw confusion in Jordan's brown
eyes. How was she going to talk her way out of this?

Red's voice over the air lock com saved her. "Are you ready, ladies? Please
tether yourself to each other. Once the doors open, you will follow standard space-walk
protocol - one leader, one anchor."

"Anchor or lead?" Dray asked, glad for the diversion.

Jordan's nervous voice cracked as she responded, "Anchor."

Dray hooked their suits together with the rope. "Tethered and ready," she said
as Jordan's gloved hand slid into hers. The grip wouldn't help in the vacuum of
space, but Dray felt a wave of calm washed over her.

"We can do this," said Jordan, sounding more confident as the airlock door
slid silently open.

The stars of the Betal Galaxy spread out before them, glittering diamonds on
a black velvet landscape. Jordan locked her end of the tether rope to the safety
hook just outside the airlock.

"Lead, follow the guide rail to the port side," Jenny announced. "Keep one
end of the tether locked at all times."

Dray stepped out of the airlock. The expected weightlessness was countered
by the magna-locks on her space boots, pulling her to the outer hull. Four paces
along, she locked her end of the tether and waved Jordan out. Dray saw the wide
grin on Jordan's face as she joined Dray and locked her tether. Repeating that
pattern, Dray led them along the rear of the frigate until they came around fully
to port.

The green surface of Beta-7 dominated the starscape, but the vision that made
both women gasp came from the swirling mass of asteroids that stretched across
their view. Gray rocks gave way to giant multicolored asteroids pushing their
way through illuminated matter clouds. It was a view no artist could replicate.

"It's beautiful," said Jordan.

An airlock door slid open further along the port side. The rest of the 28th
streamed out, followed by a table-sized propelled drone. The squadron drifted
beyond the frigate, pulled along by their tethers connected to the drone.

"Welcome to your first space party," said Red as he waved at them from the
drone.

Jenny maneuvered the drone from within the frigate, sending it toward Dray
and Jordan so they could re-tether to the drone along with the rest of their squadron.
"You've got an hour and a half on your air tanks. Welcome to the 28th
and enjoy the view."

#

Dray pulled the pillow over her head, muffling the sound of the shower. She
desperately wanted to sleep in on their first free cycle since joining the 28th.
Why Jordan was up and showering already would remain one of life's mysteries.
Dray's mind drifted back toward dreamland when the annoying buzz of her comlink
went off, destroying all hope of renewed sleep. She reached out her hand and fumbled
for the comlink on the bedside stand.

"Someone better be dead or dying," she grumbled into the activated comlink.

"Not yet," Jenny replied, laughing. "But I have high hopes for the future."

Dray sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "I thought we had the cycle
off?"

"Mostly. But we have attack drills tomorrow on the FX-27s. Red and I thought
we'd take you two out for a test run."

"Excellent!" Dray hopped off the bed and scrambled to find a clean flight suit.

"We'll come get you in ten."

Dray clicked off her comlink. Finally, she thought, they'd have their chance
on a star fighter. Not entirely a solo flight since the FX-27 had pilot and gunner/co-pilot
seats, but at least it was a fighter. She pulled on her least wrinkled flight
suit. The bathroom door opened behind her as she zipped up the suit.

"You'll never guess what we get to do," she said, turning toward Jordan.

A wave of warm, humid air drifted to Dray as she stared at her roommate. Jordan
wore loose, white boxer shorts and a thin tank top that clung to her firm breasts.
She worked a towel through her wet, black hair. Dray felt herself transfixed by
the sight as heat rose in her cheeks. The ability to talk or move left her. Even
the star fighter couldn't compete with the sensual vision of Jordan's scantily
clad body.

"Well? Are you going to tell me the big secret?" asked Jordan, a smile pulling
at the corners of her lips.

Dray blinked, struggling to control her desire.

"Dray? Base station to Dray, do you read me?"

"Um, yeah." Dray started at the floor between them, but not before she saw
Jordan's flirtatious smile. "Jenny called. We get to test out an FX-27."

Jordan tossed her towel back into the bathroom. "Really? When?"

A knock on the door announced their mentors.

"Right about now," said Dray.

"Don't let them in yet." Jordan grabbed a suit out of her closet and ran back
into the bathroom.

Dray suppressed a laugh as she opened the door and let in Jenny and Red. Both
wore flight suits like her own though with markedly less creases. She really aught
to sharpen her appearance. Some day.

Red graced her with a brilliant smile. "Are you both ready?"

"Jordan's just getting into her flight suit and then we're ready to go," said
Dray. She watched the faintest ripple of deep orange on Red's face as he glanced
to the bathroom and back. She had to give him credit for balancing his attraction
to her roommate with his responsibilities as mentor. Dray didn't want to dwell
on what would happen in a few cycles when that responsibility ended.

The object of both their desires emerged from the bathroom in a well pressed
flight suit. Jordan's dark, wet bangs clung to her forehead, onver well-shaped
eye brows. Jordan's brown eyes glanced across each of them and settled on the
neutrality of Jenny. With cheeks turning red, Dray felt her own attraction to
Jordan as exposed as the Tarquin's rippling skin tone. Jenny led them down to
the launch area.

The group stood beside two FX-27 star fighters while Jenny explained the test
maneuvers they would cover once clear of the base station. Dray's attention split
between her mentor's instructions and the sleek fighter beside her. Once Jenny
finished, Dray indulged in her first full pilot's pre-flight check on the star
fighter. She inspected propulsion, hull integrity, and landing gear as she walked
around the fighter. Beneath each extended wing, she noted the quad-pack of drone
munitions, the small-weapons training ammo that would verify a hit on any target
but would do only superficial damage to another star fighter in the event of an
accident.

Dray turned to her mentor. "Flight pre-check clear, Ma'am."

"Then let's get out there, cadet Draybek." Jenny's warm smile relieved some
of Dray's tension as they strapped in, pulled on helmets, and prepared to launch.

Jordan and Red sat in the fighter next to Dray. Jordan gave her the thumbs-up
signal and ignited her launch engines. Dray watched her friend's precise control
as the other fighter cleared the landing dock and shot out into the stars. She
clutched her own controls and waited a heartbeat before starting her launch engines.
The fighter glided off the launch bay floor and hovered, waiting for Dray's next
command.

"It's just like the simulator," said Jenny through the helmet com.

Dray glided the fighter out into open space. Once clear of the base station,
she turned on main propulsion and the fighter flew into open space. Her heart
raced with the fighter as they screamed passed the outer perimeter satellites
that marked the edge of base station Zenon.

"That's good Dray, but next time not quite so much acceleration within Zenon's
control zone, eh?"

"Sorry. Just excited to be out here." Dray turned on the navigation computer
and entered their target coordinates.

They flew phantom attack and evasion drills for two hours. Jenny entered phantom
fighters from her command station and ordered Dray to either seek and destroy,
or evade. Dray flew through the prescribed classic patterns at near top speed,
her instincts controlling the real star fighter in much the same way she had adroitly
maneuvered the simulators. Her drone munitions fired at empty space, targeting
the phantoms created by Jenny.

"That's it, Draybeck. You've shot down all I had programmed for today. I can't
wait to kick some butt in tomorrows exercise. We're up against the 14th
squad."

Jenny's praise flowed over Dray like a cool mist, bringing her back from the
intense concentration of a fighter pilot to the excited cadet again. They coasted
along at the end of the drill, waiting for Jordan and Red to join them before
returning to base.

An instant later, the perimeter breach alert clanged in her ear. Her hands
locked onto her controls and she kicked into full propulsion, rotating the star
fighter into a 260 degree lateral just as the view screen in front of her lit
up with the traces of small weapons fire.

Dray eased up on the thrust and headed back to Zenon with Jordan's fighter
flying in formation beside her. She glanced over at her friends. Red raised his
hands and shrugged, obviously not as upset by Grace's orders as Jenny seemed to
be. In silent communication, the two fighters glided in perfect unison into the
launch area and landed. Dray hopped out of her fighter and examined the hits she'd
received. To her dismay, she had more black strafes on her wing and tail than
Jordan had. She'd been out-gunned.

Jordan came up beside her and ruffled a hand through Dray's short blond hair.
"Got you."

"You got lucky," said Dray, smiling.

The thrill of their first flight ended when J.P. Grace marched up and glowered
over Jenny. The smaller woman kept here eyes averted, but Dray saw the color draining
out of her mentor's face.

"Tomiko, your actions were out of line," said Grace.

Red interrupted her. "Come on, Malory. They were just having some fun. It's
not like the ammo can't be cleaned off with a good blast cleaning."

Grace's face tightened in anger. "You'll address me as fits my rank, Senior
Cadet, or I'll have you on report."

Red's broad smile never wavered as he looped an arm over Grace's shoulder.
They were both of matching height. "My apologies J.P. Grace. I meant no disrespect."
He began leading her away from Jenny as he soothed over the incident. "Remember
the time you and I went out after hours? You covered my fighter in black streaks
that took me half a cycle to clean off."

Grace laughed. "I always had you beat, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did."

She turned back to Dray and the others. "I want those fighters cleaned until
they glow, you understand?"

"Yes, Ma'am," said Dray, glad for once of Red's unerring charm.

She relaxed once Red led Grace out of the launch area, but Jenny's pale expression
revealed her mentor had yet to shake off the experience.

"Sorry about that," said Dray. "Why dont you go on ahead. Jordan and
I can finish up here."

Jenny looked between the two of them. "I should stay and help. I did let this
happen."

Dray gave her a friendly nudge. "Yeah, so did the big Red Menace, but you don't
see him standing around with a jet blaster in his hands, do you? Go on, we'll
meet up with you later."

"Thanks." Jenny gave her a quick hug and then left the launch area, heading
in the opposite direction than Red and Malory had taken.

Dray turned back to Jordan, who was frowning as she watched Jenny leave.

"What's up?" asked Dray.

"Hmm?" Jordan glanced at her and then back to Jenny. "Nothing. Clean up time,
I guess."

Jordan opened a storage bin and pulled out two hand-held jet blasters. She
gave one to Dray and then walked around to her star fighter. Dray turned on the
blaster and felt the powerful tool hum in her hands. The cleaning tool made quick
work of the black streaks on Dray's fighter. She ran her hands along the cleaned
hull one last time before putting away the blaster.

"Should we go find the other two?" asked Dray as Jordan handed her the other
blaster.

Jordan stuffed her hands in her flight suit pocket. "I think I'll just go back
to the dorm."

Something was bothering Jordan, but Dray hadnt a clue what it might be.
Was she upset that Red had left with Grace? She hoped not.

"Okay, I guess I'll see you later then." Dray hesitated leaving her friend,
but Jordan turned away from her and walked out of the launch area without another
word.